The Duval County County School Board on Tuesday will discuss whether to jump on the bandwagon of school districts statewide calling for alternatives to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

It will take up the matter during a Board Development Meeting beginning at 12:30 p.m. in Room 613 at the school district administration building, 1701 Prudential Drive.

The discussion is the last matter on the three-item agenda.

School Board members in Brevard and school districts throughout the state have approved resolutions calling for Gov. Rick Scott, the state Board of Education and the Legislature to change the system which makes the FCAT the primary measure of student, teacher and school accountability.

In a growing movement, parents, teachers, and school boards are voicing dismay with the FCAT and end-of-course exams, which depending on the grade level can determine if a student is promoted or graduates.

Such high-stakes testing, they say, places too much pressure on students and teacher.

A renowned Florida educator has written an excellent article about the problem in public education that is an area our district could easily use as a focus instead of continuing to follow the trend to use testing results as the end all be all of measuring academic prowess. The Common Core Standards that the state of Florida has also committed to are not going to improve education either (buyer beware).

1. The test results are received too late to be of any value to the students’ current teachers to begin any remediation in areas that are marked as needing additional work. When the students return to class in August, these scores are seriously out of date. Teachers will do a current assessment at that time to determine where each student is performing.

2. The cost of the FCAT is astronomical. The annual cost for the state of Florida was estimated to be $44 million. That amount doesn’t include the cost of the technology infrastructure that is required for the tests that are and will be administered online. And more computers and bandwidth will be needed in upcoming years as more tests must be administered online AT THE SAME TIME to large numbers of students.

3. The target score is moved so often that is difficult (if not impossible) to accurately track students’, schools, and/or the state’s academic improvement. The target scores just this year were adjusted to squelch a public uproar about the 4th grade writing score. How can the public determine if other scores were adjusted without us knowing?

4. Many school scores were calculated incorrectly this year and had to be adjusted. We have no way of knowing if the other scores are correct. Concerns about scores also arose in 2006 and 2010. Yet students’ promotions, school and district funding, and teachers’ continuing employment are now being based on these scores.

6. The FCAT has become such a high stakes test that there has been much discussion of “teaching to the test” and watered down curriculum. These are valid concerns, ask any teacher who started teaching prior to 1998. Testing also has created many stress-induced health issues for students.

7. It appears that no matter how the state DOE spins their stories, the FCAT has not actually improved instruction in our state but has had a negative impact. Large numbers of Florida high school graduates continue to need remediation classes when they enter college.

8. New information is just reaching the mainstream news that the tests developed by Pearson for our students are not measuring their academic growth in the way that was intended. This is a very serious concern for tests that hold a student’s future hostage.

9. The main beneficiary of the FCAT (and many other states' tests) is the publishing company, Pearson, based in the UK. Pearson is now also developing tests for 4 year olds to determine “readiness”, is responsible for testing FL residents for driver’s licenses and many business licenses, has purchased the SAT that is taken by college bound students, and will soon be responsible for determining which teachers will actually receive certificates after completing College of Education requirements. I won’t even attempt to post all the links that are available to provide this information.

If I were a school board member in any district in the state of Florida who was being held ACCOUNTABLE for the education of a community’s children, I would NOT want my accountability based on the moving target and unreliability of FCAT scores. I strongly encourage our school board members to take the time to discuss this issue, perhaps schedule another meeting for public input, and make a decision that will show that they are willing to be held accountable for the academic growth of students in Duval County, but the FCAT is no longer the answer. I would happily meet with any or all of them to share the data I have collected over the years regarding standardized testing and actual academic success.

Glad to hear the School Board has its priorities straight. Better to attempt to demolish FCAT rather than improve it and ignore the poor grad. rates (fat with grade recovery and social promotions), wasteful ed. programs, lack of discipline and many but not all teachers rooted in the pit of tenure and lack of performance. Almost as bad as the irresponsible parents and political "leaders" are willing to buy votes and not demand reform.